[Opinion] Relative Deprivation

I once read an interesting book on correlations between promotion and morale of the U.S. soldiers during World War 2. The report showed that air force soldiers are more pessimistic about a promotion and, therefore, discontented rather than military policemen although the promotion rate showed 47% on average for the air force and a relatively low 24% for the MP. The study reveals that the better the situation is set for people, the higher their expectation grows. In this scenario, people feel deprived of what others enjoy more often in the improving condition. This is called, the relative deprivation.

The book entitled, the American Soldiers, describes general peoples` psychology in its case study. According to the book, published long ago, people tend to gruntle less when only one out of four is promoted, but suffer greatly from the relative deprivation when one in every two people except for themselves is promoted. The theory of the relative deprivation is often quoted to explain the so called “the Tocqueville`s Paradox”. The French scholar, who wrote a famous book on the French Revolution, said that the public discontent is higher in a highly progressed society.

The relative deprivation is, as it says, totally comparative and unjustifiable feeling, which neglects objective analysis. It will not sell, in the same vein, if a successful man in the public eyes expresses discontent publicly only by comparison with his better old days or with the fame of his colleagues. It also explains how a majority of Koreans feel deprived over the gaps between their expectation and the resulted distribution rather than over the conflicted political beliefs of many politicians whose former friends change to their major critics overnight.

Yet, a leader of a country should be different to be a good governor of the nation and a respected protector of people. Despite the relative deprivation, the leader should heal the scars on the politics by opening his ears to politicians on the opposite side and embracing the differences in their beliefs. Korean people believe the generosity and openness of their leader are equally important for the sake of the country and its people as “the tuning the code”, which seems to overwhelm their leader.